The East Bank Club’s former controller pleaded guilty this week to scamming more than $4 million out of the upscale River North health club.
Peter Craig Savely, 58, faces a likely sentence of around four or five years after pleading guilty to bank fraud Thursday before U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman, records show. His sentencing is set for Feb. 2.
Federal prosecutors quietly filed charges against Savely last week.
Savely’s scam lasted from 2013 until November 2020, according to his 18-page plea agreement. It said he created bogus payroll checks payable to four unidentified individuals, signed them as controller and forged the signatures of the club’s chief financial officer and the purported recipients of the checks.
He then deposited the money into bank accounts he controlled and put the money to personal use, records show.
Savely covered his tracks by making false entries in financial ledgers and spreading the losses across multiple departments, according to the plea agreement.
An East Bank Club representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
